Wallis, Jim

"Shows people of faith how they can work together to overcome the embedded racism in America, galvanizing a movement to cross the bridge to a multiracial church and a new America"--Amazon.com.

First, the good news: according to Wallis, founder of Sojourners and author of the bestseller God's Politics, the era of the religious right is over, and a new crop of under-30 progressives may well be taking American religionand American politicsby storm. The bad news: people of faith need to get to work to further this grassroots support for social justice. Wallis draws on lively stories from his speaking engagements and world travels to discuss how the silent majority of religious Americans who don't feel represented by the religious right's agenda can first take comfort in their sheer numbers and then take action in their communities to fight poverty, clean up the environment and eradicate disease. The book is as passionate, engaging and emotionally moving as readers have come to expect from Wallis, who comes across as a Rauschenbuschian teddy bear, alternately stumping for justice and proclaiming God's love. As a cohesive book, however, this has a rough and clunky sensibility, with considerable repetition of ideas, examples and even phrasing. It has the feel of discrete essays and speeches that have been knocked together and too lightly edited. Still, fans of God's Politics who are eager to learn of the next step will find compelling ideas and stories.

Examines the controversy between politics and religion as proposed by both right and left-wing politicians, and maintains that America's separation of church and state does not require dismissing moral and religious values from the public forum.